The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Petunia plant originated from crossing of a seedling called ‘Fantasy Blue’ (unpatented) as the female parent and a Petunia hybrid variety called ‘PAB2’ (unpatented) as the male parent.
The Petunia is a very popular plant that is used for flower bedding and potting in the summer season. There are only a few Petunia varieties known to the inventors which do not have an upright growth habit and which have a high resistance to rain, heat, and disease. Petunias of the ‘Revolution’ series include ‘Revolution Purple pink’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,915), ‘Revolution Brillant pink’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,914), ‘Revolution Brillantpink-Mini’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,899), and ‘Revolution Blue vein’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,322). These are decumbent type plants having long stems, a low plant height, abundant branching, and a high resistance to heat, rain and disease. However, there are only a few Petunia varieties known to the inventors having a decumbent and compact plant shape, a great profusion of small size flowers, vivid purple petals and a high resistance to rain, heat, and disease. Accordingly, this invention was aimed at obtaining a new Petunia variety having vivid purple petals, together with the above features.
The female parent ‘Fantasy Blue’ used in the crossing that created ‘Suncopablue’ is a cultivar, having an erect growth habit with many branches. It has small single flowers, the petals having vivid violet color. The seed of ‘Fantasy Blue’ was bought from Sakata Seed Corp. The growth habit of the female parent ‘Fantasy Blue’ is erect. In contrast, that of ‘Suncopablue’ is decumbent.
The male parent ‘PAB2’ used in the crossing that created ‘Suncopablue’ is a strain of our breeding lines, having a decumbent growth habit with many branches. It has small single flowers, the petals having a violet color. The spreading area of ‘PAB2’ is smaller than that of ‘Suncopablue’.
In July 2000, crossing of ‘Fantasy Blue’ as the female parent and ‘PAB2’ (unpatented) as the male parent was conducted at Yokaichi-shi, Shiga-ken, Japan. In April 2001, 80 seedlings were obtained from that crossing. These seedlings were grown in pots in glasshouses and were evaluated. One seedling was selected in view of its growth habit, flower size and color in September 2001. That seedling was propagated by cutting and a trial was carried out by flower potting and bedding from April to September 2002 at Yokaichi-shi, Shiga-ken, Japan. The botanical characteristics of that plant were then examined, using similar varieties ‘Revolution Violet-mini’ (unpatented), and ‘Fantasy Crystal Red’ (unpatented) for comparison. As a result, it was concluded that this Petunia plant is distinguishable from any other variety, whose existence is known to us, and is uniform and stable in its characteristics. Then the new variety of Petunia plant was named ‘Suncopablue’.
In the following description, the color-coding is in accordance with The R.H.S. Colour Chart.